Africa is indispensable for India's energy security

May 25, 2006 02:00 AM

Africa is indispensable for India's energy security and the Non-Aligned Movement should be resurrected to strengthen
Afro-Asian solidarity, says Minister of Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar.
"In the quest for India's energy security, Africa is an indispensable continent," Aiyar told African heads of
missions, academics and Africa enthusiasts. Aiyar was delivering the fourth "Africa Day Lecture," organized by the
Indian Council of World Affairs, at Sapru House.

Making a strong pitch for taking India-Africa relations to a new level, Aiyar also underlined the need for India to
start Track II initiative and for sending a special envoy" to African countries to inject new life into an old
relationship, bound by shared struggle against colonialism, imperialism and apartheid.
"We don't have Track II mechanism with African countries. We need Track II to revitalize our relations with Africa,"
Aiyar said.

Track II diplomacy refers to informal consultations at the highest level to resolve complex issues between the two
countries and to take relations to a new level, as is the case with the Track II initiative between India and
Pakistan.
In a throwback to the heady days of Afro-Asian solidarity during the time of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru
and Indira Gandhi, Aiyar conjured a vibrant future of the NAM.

"NAM should be resurrected as a forum of solidarity for Asia, Africa and Latin America to bring about a world of
their choice," he said.
"India and Africa should stay united in the NAM," Aiyar, a former diplomat, said as he urged Asian countries to join
hands to spur "African resurgence."

Aiyar's remarks are seen as a crucial pointer to renewed Indian efforts to revitalize NAM at the forthcoming summit
to be held in Havana in September later this year.
Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohammad, Dean of African Diplomatic Corps and Sudan's ambassador of India, urged India and
Africa to join hands and "face together the agenda of the new millennium."
"Indo-African cooperation is central to Africa taking its rightful place in the world," he said.